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5.3l Gas Saving Mods?


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The moral of the story, keep the RPM around 18K-19K (whatever speed that nets you with gearing and tire size) and follow the other advice about coasting and slow acceleration.

 

WTF kind of small block chevy are you running that turns 18-19,000 RPM's!? I think the tach on my truck only goes to like 6-7k RPMs.....

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This flies in the face of every aftermarket product out there claiming that it saves fuel--you will never gain mileage by increasing airflow through a gasoline engine in a mass airflow type system.

 

But, but what about all these guys who added a high flow air filter or a cold air induction kit, drive like Kyle Bush and still get 2mpg better mileage. Haha. Must be some new math. Some are so confident its true they get riled up if anyone shows them logic that proves its impossible.

 

Effect of Intake Air Filter Condition on Vehicle Fuel Economy

 

 

Energy and Transportation Science Division

 

EFFECT OF INTAKE AIR FILTER CONDITION ON VEHICLE FUEL ECONOMY

 

Kevin Norman

 

Shean Huff

 

Brian West

 

Date Published: February 2009

 

Prepared by

 

OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY

 

Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6283

 

managed by

 

UT-BATTELLE, LLC

 

for the

 

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

 

under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725

 

 

 

 

 

4.1 CONCLUSIONS

The goal of this study was to explore the effects of a clogged air filter on the fuel economy of vehicles operating over prescribed test cycles. Three newer vehicles (a 2007 Buick Lucerne, a 2006 Dodge Charger, and a 2003 Toyota Camry) and an older carbureted vehicle were tested.

 

Results show that clogging the air filter has no significant effect on the fuel economy of the newer vehicles (all fuel injected with closed-loop control and one equipped with MDS). The engine control systems were able to maintain the desired AFR regardless of intake restrictions, and therefore fuel consumption was not increased. The carbureted engine did show a decrease in fuel economy with increasing restriction. However, the level of restriction required to cause a substantial (10–15%) decrease in fuel economy (such as that cited in the literature3,4) was so severe that the vehicle was almost undrivable. Acceleration performance on all vehicles was improved with a clean air filter.

 

Once it was determined how severe the restriction had to be to affect the carbureted vehicle fuel economy, the 2007 Buick Lucerne was retested in a similar manner. We were not able to achieve the level of restriction that was achieved with the 1972 Pontiac with the Lucerne. The Lucerne’s air filter box would not hold the filter in place under such severe conditions. (It is believed that this testing exceeded the design limits of the air box.) Tests were conducted at a lower restriction level (although still considerably more severe than the initial clogged filter testing), allowing the air filter to stay seated in the air box, and no significant change was observed in the Lucerne’s fuel economy or the AFR over the HFET cycle.

 

Closed-loop control in modern fuel injected vehicle applications is sophisticated enough to keep a clogged air filter from affecting the vehicle fuel economy. However for older, open-loop, carbureted vehicles, a clogged air filter can affect the fuel economy. For the vehicle tested, the fuel economy with a new air filter improved as much as 14% over that with a severely clogged filter (in which the filter was so clogged that drivability was impacted). Under a more typical state of clog, the improvement with a new filter ranged from 2 to 6%.

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Who the hell goes and buys a foreign piece of shit to save on some gas!!!! Buy American!!!!!

Unfortunatly "american" cars are mostly throwaway junk with no resale whatsoever, especially the economy cars. Yes, I own one myself, and I can vouch for it being JUNK.

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Most of the new compact stuff out there is quite good actually- The Cruze, Sonic, Fiesta and Focus are all fantastic little cars and I wouldn't hesitate to buy any of them if I actually was concerned about fuel efficiency or if I needed something small for another reason.

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Most of the new compact stuff out there is quite good actually- The Cruze, Sonic, Fiesta and Focus are all fantastic little cars and I wouldn't hesitate to buy any of them if I actually was concerned about fuel efficiency or if I needed something small for another reason.

Im talking 3 years and older. These cars you list are new still, the cruze is supposedly coming out with a diesel, I am interested in this.

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Most of the new compact stuff out there is quite good actually- The Cruze, Sonic, Fiesta and Focus are all fantastic little cars and I wouldn't hesitate to buy any of them if I actually was concerned about fuel efficiency or if I needed something small for another reason.

 

And probably not one of those are "American", they're imported from Europe, from affiliate companies, and rebadged North American. Exception is the Focus, that may be designed/made in NA (unsure about that one).

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someone on gmfullsize made a homemade intake and claims it helped his milage.....

 

 

Link

 

i have a friend that built two intakes similar to this, but put a cone filter on the end.

 

of course, when you are putting an ls1 in a 68 camaro and a 6.0 vortec in a 68 shortbed, you run out of options on an intake :)

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I dont mean to hijack this topic but I have been reading through everything and a lot of ppl recommend keeping your rpms low (under 2k). I drive very conservatively and keep my rpms low in town and on the high way. It seems like no matter how much I accelerate from a stop light or something my realtime mpgs are at 3-4. I can accelerate hard or very soft and it stays very low. Do any of you guys who drive at low rpms from stop to go have better realtime mpgs?

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Realtime MPG will only drive you nuts. You cant really guage anything from watching that stupid thing. I used to watch the one in my wife's Tahoe and it almost drove me crazy while I almost drove into a light pole. Her truck gets 20mpg on the highway, but it will regularly drop to single digit numbers under hard throttle and acceleration. Just monitor your Average MPG as opposed to the Instant MPG, and keep the RPM below 2K as much as you can, especially when cruising.

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Realtime MPG will only drive you nuts. You cant really guage anything from watching that stupid thing. I used to watch the one in my wife's Tahoe and it almost drove me crazy while I almost drove into a light pole. Her truck gets 20mpg on the highway, but it will regularly drop to single digit numbers under hard throttle and acceleration. Just monitor your Average MPG as opposed to the Instant MPG, and keep the RPM below 2K as much as you can, especially when cruising.

 

 

Ha I can relate, that is all I look at when I drive. Not a good idea putting that on there. My girlfriend even caught me starring at it and was like you need to quit looking at that thing we almost ran over a deer. Haha oh well. I think it would be wise to just use the average :thumbs:

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Realtime MPG will only drive you nuts. You cant really guage anything from watching that stupid thing. I used to watch the one in my wife's Tahoe and it almost drove me crazy while I almost drove into a light pole. Her truck gets 20mpg on the highway, but it will regularly drop to single digit numbers under hard throttle and acceleration. Just monitor your Average MPG as opposed to the Instant MPG, and keep the RPM below 2K as much as you can, especially when cruising.

 

 

Ha I can relate, that is all I look at when I drive. Not a good idea putting that on there. My girlfriend even caught me starring at it and was like you need to quit looking at that thing we almost ran over a deer. Haha oh well. I think it would be wise to just use the average :thumbs:

 

 

+1

 

I just try to keep rpms under 2k when I can and keep it on trip meter and watch the gas gauge...fill at 1/4 tank so pump doesn't turn off on me lol

 

 

I love the truck but it sure is a hard departure to the mpg I was getting in the Honda Fit

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Who the hell goes and buys a foreign piece of shit to save on some gas!!!! Buy American!!!!!

 

 

My 2011 Silverado was made in Mexico, my 2007 Honda was made in the USA. Which one is more/less American??

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